Sunday, March 14, 2004

Things not to do to your website, part 2

Don't hide in plain sight when you want something back from your customers.

If you want someone to share their name, address, telephone number, and credit card number, you should make that information easily available to them. Let your customers know who you are, and build a level of trust.

Credibilty is a very important part of succeeding when you want to engage in commercial activities on the web. I heartily recommend a visit to the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility There are some great suggestions there. Keep in mind that you have a couple of purposes behind disclosing information about yourself to your potential customers. One is that you want to prove that you are trustworthy. The second is that you want to have people believe in your expertise.